JANUARY 5–17 (18–30), 1912

ELECTIONS TO THE FOURTH DUMA

I

This Conference recognises the undoubted necessity for participation by
the R.S.D.L. Party in the forthcoming election campaign to the Fourth State
Duma, the nomination of independent candidates of our Party and the
formation in the Fourth Duma of a Social-Democratic group, which as a
section of the Party is subordinated to the Party as a whole.

The main tasks of our Party in the elections, and equally of the future
Social-Democratic group in the Duma itself—a task to which all else must
be subordinated—is socialist, class propaganda and the organisation of
the working class.

The main election slogans of our Party in the forthcoming elections
must be:

In all our election agitation it is essential to give the clearest
possible explanation of these demands, based on the experience of the Third
Duma and all the activities of the government in the sphere of central as
well as local administration.

All propaganda on the remaining demands of the Social-Democratic
minimum programme, namely: universal franchise, freedom of association,
election of judges and officials by the people, state insurance for
workers, replacement of the standing army by the arming of the people, and
so on, must be inseparably linked with the above-mentioned three demands.

II

The general tactical line of the R.S.D.L.P. in the elections should be
the following: the Party must conduct a merciless struggle against the
tsarist monarchy and the par ties of landowners and capitalists supporting
it, at the same time steadfastly exposing the counter-revolutionary views
of the bourgeois liberals (headed by the Cadet Party) and their sham
democracy.

Particular attention in the election campaign must be paid to
dissociating the position of the proletarian party from that of
all non-proletarian parties and explaining the petty-bourgeois
essence of the sham socialism of the democratic (chiefly Trudovik, Narodnik
and Socialist-Revolutionary) groups, as well as the harm done to democracy
by their waverings on the question of consistent and mass revolutionary
struggle.

As far as electoral agreements are concerned, the Party, adhering to
the decisions of the London Congress, must:

(1) Put forward its candidates in all worker curias and forbid
any agreement whatsoever with other parties or groups
(liquidators);

(2) In view of the great agitational significance of the mere fact of
nomination of independent Social-Democratic candidates, it is necessary to
ensure that in the second assemblies of urban voters, and as far as
possible in the peas ant curias, the Party puts forward its own candidates;

(3) In cases of a second ballot (Article 106 of the Election
Regulations) in the election of electors at the second assemblies of urban
voters it is permissible to conclude agreements with bourgeois democrats
against the liberals, and then with the liberals against all the government
parties. One form of agreement can be the compilation of a general list of
electors for one or several towns in proportion to the number of votes
registered at the first elections;

(4) In those five cities (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, Odessa, Kiev)
where there are direct elections with a second ballot, it is essential in
the first elections to put forward independent Social-Democratic candidates
for the second urban curia voters. In the event of a second ballot here,
and since there is obviously no danger from the Black
Hundreds, it is permissible to come to an agreement only with the
democratic groups against the liberals;

(5) There can be no electoral agreements providing for a common
platform, and Social-Democratic candidates must not be bound by any kind of
political commitment, nor must Social-Democrats be prevented from
resolutely criticising the counter-revolutionary nature of the liberals and
the half-heartedness and inconsistency of the bourgeois democrats;

(6) At the second stage of the elections (in the uyezd assemblies of
delegates, in the gubernia assemblies of voters, etc.), wherever it proves
essential to ensure the defeat of an Octobrist-Black Hundred or a
government list in general, an agreement must be concluded to share the
seats, primarily with bourgeois democrats (Trudoviks, Popular Socialists,
etc.), and then with the liberals (Cadets), independents, Progressists,
etc.

III

All Social-Democrats must immediately commence preparation for
the election campaign, and should pay special attention to the following:

(1) It is urgently necessary everywhere to form illegal
Social-Democratic nuclei in order that they may without delay prepare for
the Social-Democratic election campaign;

(2) To pay the necessary attention to the strengthening and broadening
of the legally existing workers’ press;

(3) The entire election campaign must be carried out in close alliance
with workers’ trades unions and all other associations of workers, and the
form in which these societies participate must be chosen with due
consideration paid to their legal status;

(4) Special attention must be paid to the organisational and agitation
preparation of the elections in the worker curias of those six gubernias in
which the election of deputies to the Duma from the worker curias is
guaranteed (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vladimir, Kostroma, Kharkov and
Ekaterinoslav). Every single worker elector—here and in the other
gubernias—must be a Social-Democratic Party member;

(5) Assemblies of workers’ delegates, guided by the decision of the
illegal Party organisations, must decide who precisely is to be
elected to the Duma from the workers, and bind all electors, under threat
of boycott and being branded as traitors, to withdraw their candidature in
favour of the Party candidate;

(6) In view of persecution by the government, the arrest of
Social-Democrat candidates, etc., it is necessary to carry out particularly
restrained, systematic and careful work, using every means to react quickly
to all police tactics and nullify all the tricks and coercion of the
tsarist government, and to elect Social-Democrats to the Fourth State Duma,
and then in general to strengthen the group of democratic deputies in the
Duma;

(7) The candidates of the Social-Democratic Party are endorsed, and
instructions concerning the elections are given by the local illegal
organisations and groups of the Party, under the general supervision and
guidance of the Central Committee of the Party;

(8) If, despite all efforts, it proves impossible to convene a Party
congress or a new conference before the elections to the Fourth Duma, the
Conference empowers the Central Committee, or an institution appointed for
the purpose by the latter, to issue concrete instructions on questions
concerning the conduct of the election campaign in the various localities,
or to meet special circumstances arising, etc.